“Nothing but passports?” Frowning, I waded through the stack of photocopies from the files.
“Just passports,” Luis confirmed.
I drew one of the papers from the pile. A pretty girl with shiny lips and glossy hair stared back at me. “Catarina Perez? I know that name.”
“That’s because she’s Carlos Jiménez’s niece. The one who went missing and started that war I mentioned.”
“Oh, shit, yeah. I thought it was a rival cartel that took her.” The Jiménez cartel was relatively new, making a name for itself quickly. Too quickly to suit the older cartels. The logical leap was that a rival cartel snatched the girl. The war that ensued made headlines even up here in Colorado. “So what? Alvarado took her?”
“Alvarado, Joe and Leila were bringing in cash and drugs for the Jiménez cartel. The money was being laundered through various hands, each taking a percentage. The illegals were the side business.”
“Alvarado figured while he was making trips to Mexico, he’d pad his pockets.”
“You must be loads of fun with twenty questions. Go ahead if you got all the answers.”
“I have been told it’s annoying to play it with me.” I checked the other papers, no other names jumped out at me. “Okay, I’m stumped. They’re bringing in illegals as a side business. How does she fit in?”
“Alvarado was bringing in five, six illegals a month. Each paid five thousand dollars—one way or another—for forged green cards.”
“Dench handled forging papers,” I guessed.
“With help from an ex-cop who worked in immigration. He was picked up last night.”
“Twenty-five grand a month isn’t much when split up.”
“Which is why Alvarado got even greedier, making more trips. Too many for the immigration connection to keep up with. Alvarado set up a safe house for those waiting for papers—the ones that couldn’t pay up front went to work for him or were sold.”
“Or their kids were sold,” I added. I turned the sheet of paper with Catarina’s picture to him. “She paid up front?”
“Partially. Ran away three days after her Quinceañera with a boyfriend the father didn’t approve of. Used three grand in gifts from family to pay her and the boyfriend’s way across. They all found out who she was later. After.”
“After what?”
“After she was raped and murdered in the whorehouse Alvarado put her in.”
“Jesus,” I whispered. “No wonder they needed that paper trail destroyed. Jiménez would do worse than kill them when he found out. Why the hell didn’t they get rid of the papers?”
He pointed to the folder. “Dench handled all the paperwork. Leila Alvarado found out about the girl’s death. She started killing everyone who could link the missing girl with their operation. The other seven people in that file are buried somewhere unknown, along with the girl. Dench had a strike of conscience. He tucked evidence in two safety deposit boxes. If he handed over Peter’s box it meant jail time. The second kid’s box was a death sentence for everyone involved. Buchanan thinks he keeled over from the stress. By then he had hidden both sets of passports.”
“Until Peter dredges some of them up, minus the most important evidence.”
Luis grunted his agreement. “Del and Frank see Alvarado in custody, they watch the interview tape and see that he’s ready to deal.”
“They had to get rid of him,” I finished. “So how’d they set up Cai?”
“They went after Alvarado. In an effort to save himself, he tells them that your boy has the passports.”
“Peter, not boy,” I corrected offhandedly. It was getting uncomfortable that people were describing him as a boy. Even if to Luis I was a kid.
“Leila offs Alvarado, and that’s when Nikolaj comes back to the house. Probably to off Alvarado himself. Now they have a witness, but the boy takes off before they can take care of him.”
“They don’t know who he is and can’t ask Alvarado because he’s dead,” I guessed.
“Yep. Nikolaj ran out of the house, so he was nice and visible to all the neighborhood, but none of them recognized him. Then you come into the station and ID him. They know who the kid is now, but they also know you’re involved with Peter. So, instead of going after Peter directly, they decide they do two things. Get you off the case somehow and then use Nikolaj as leverage. They arrest the kid. Then comes a second problem”
“Cai’s figured out that there’s one more safety deposit box that no one knows about but him.” If I wasn’t so anxious to get out of there, at this point I could have made a crack about how good things do come from fucking with witnesses. But I was tired and all I wanted to do was go back to the hospital.